In a stunning setback to trans-Atlantic digital commerce, the European Court of Justice ruled in the Schrems v. Data Protection Commissioner case in October that the Safe Harbor agreement, which allows data to be transferred from the EU to the United States, is invalid. The court reasoned that, given the pervasive digital surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden and the lack of standing afforded to those who have appealed these actions in U.S courts, the Safe Harbor agreement is an ineffective tool to protect their citizens’ data. In response, a number of hardline consumer privacy advocacy groups, like the Electronic Privacy Information Center, have argued that the U.S. “must update domestic privacy law,” part of a “strategy that enables transborder data flows to continue.” However, the truth is that these groups are merely exploiting the current confusion over the future of the Safe Harbor agreement to promote their long-held agenda of enacting stringent new privacy rules on U.S. businesses that would harm innovation.

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